Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Judeo-Persian Haggadah (Kaifeng)
. . . and caused us to reach this appointed time.On the first night, one should recite the blessing “who has kept us alive . . .” But on the second night, one should not read it.Blessed are…
To the wheel that turns the river’s waters
To the wheel that turns the river’s waters
And brings them upward from the flowing deep,
I sing this song, a song to banish sorrow.
For all who love and cherish and desire
The ways of poetry and…
According to the Torah
According to the Torah, a man can acquire a woman in one of three ways:
Through a document, through silver, or through intercourse. God is the one that gives a prudent wife.
In truth, one must begin…
This wonder, this marvel
This wonder, this marvel,
which the deceitful fantasy
Basilisk or Asp believes it to be,
is an error of understanding:
Since if one considers it carefully,
the Divine Providence
is rewarding your…
Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche (Four Dialogues on the Art of the Stage)
Interlocutors: Massimiano, Santino, and VeridicoSantino:What, does it seem to you, is a comedy, who was its first author, what is its purpose, is it rendered in verse or in…
The Lover
And then I heard the singing. Chanting, prayer, live voices, not from the transistor. It wasn’t yet light, just the first flutterings of dawn. Shivering with cold, wrapped in our blankets, wet with…
Journey to the End of the Millennium
From the corner of his eye, Rabbi Elbaz now observed the anxiety in Ben Attar’s face receding somewhat, and a short row of white teeth gleaming in the smile of a merchant who finally sees the hope of…
Zakhor: Jewish History and Memory
The Hebrew Zakhor—“Remember”—announces my elusive theme. Memory is always problematic, usually deceptive, sometimes treacherous. Proust knew this, and the English reader is deprived of the full force…
Slave Sale
On the twentieth of Adar, the second year (of Arses), the accession year of Darius, the king, in Samaria the citadel, which is in Samaria the province, Hananiah son of Beyadel sold a certain Yehohanan…
The Four Children
בָּרוּךְ הַמָּקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא. בָּרוּךְ שֶׁנָּתָן תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל. בָּרוּךְ.הוּא: כְּנֶגֶד אַרְבָּעָה בָנִים דִּבְּרָה תוֹרָה. אֶחָד חָכָם. וְאֶחָד רָשָׁעוְאֶחָד תָּם. וְאֶחָד שֶׁאֵינוֹ יוֹדֵֽעַ לִשְׁאוֹל…
Portrait of Anna Akhmatova
Natan Altman’s portrait of Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) is his best-known work. He painted the famous poet in St. Petersburg in a cubist style, against a background of blue quartzlike and green…